Highly efficient and ultrastable visible-light photocatalytic water splitting over ReS₂

Two dimensional materials have many outstanding intrinsic advantages that can be utilized to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency of water splitting. Herein, based on ab initio calculations, we reveal that for monolayer and multilayer rhenium disulphide (ReS₂), the band gap and band edge positions are an excellent match with the water splitting energy levels. Moreover, the effective masses of the carriers are relatively light, and the optical absorption coefficients are high under visible illumination. Due to the feature of weak interlayer coupling, these properties are independent of the layer thickness. Our results suggest that ReS₂ is a stable and efficient photocatalyst with potential applications in the use of solar energy for water splitting.